How to manage self-striping or gradient yarn for a heel flap and gusset sock

I fell in love recently with sock yarn that self stripes or has a gradient to it. There are so many great yarns like this on the market, such as those by Schoppel. 

Recently I brought a ball of this new-to-me yarn on vacation and knit up a pair of DK weight, ribbed socks for myself, but it didn't turn out as planned.

I forgot that when you knit a top down, heel flap and gusset construction, it interrupts the color because you are working the heel flap back and forth and setting the top of the foot aside, leaving an unsightly line of sudden color change disrupting whatever pattern came before. 

On my second sock, I was much luckier, and ended up with a less noticeable jog (see below). 

Being on vacation, it didn't matter to me so much and I just kept on keeping on. And I'll still wear the heck out of these lovely boot socks, and no one will ever know but me. 

But it sure would be nice to be able to control what's going on here, right? 

I can't believe I forgot about this! So I figured that since I was having an official sample of this pattern worked up in the same yarn and colorway, I could write a little blog post about how to avoid this situation. 

While my sample knitter, Hannah, worked on the second pair of socks, I asked her to change how she did it a little to rotate the placement of the jog and change things up so the top of the foot gets a nice smooth gradient. Here's how we got from before (below, left) to after (below, right). 

First, divide whatever yarn yardage given in the pattern into two balls. We'll call them Ball A and Ball B. 

Then, you'll work the first sock as normal using Ball A, top down through the cuffs and the leg. When the instructions begin for the heel flap, set aside Ball A (break the yarn or not, it doesn't matter, you'll see in a bit!), and join in Ball B. 

Work the heel flap and short row heel turn using Ball B. Break the yarn on Ball B. 

Return to Ball A and pick up around the heel flap and heel turn for the gusset as normal. Because of where you left off the yarn for Ball A before joining Ball B, the order in which you pick up all the way around may be different from what's given in the pattern if there wasn't a yarn change. That's OK! Simply readjust the pick up order, or break Ball A yarn and rejoin to make it work. Either is fine and won't impact the color gradient much. 

Now, work the rest of the sock using Ball A again. This being a heel flap and gusset construction, the rows do have more stitches during the gusset than other parts of the sock, and the gradient change will be faster than usual. This is OK, and this is a flexible yarn that can handle that difference and it won't be that noticeable. 

If you would like to knit this pattern, it's my free Cafe Socks DK knitting pattern in a PDF format. 

Enjoy your new socks and the perfect gradient transitions!